Teaching

Many parents will tell you it's quite impossible to teach their own child. Mmmm... It's not true... you are actually teaching your child all the time! Where do you think your child learns to ask for food? understand instructions and all? You taught him!

Alot of times... parents are simply clueless or just plain lazy to put in some effort to teach their children or they claim they are not creative, no patience, not the teaching type...etc...

I have seen kids coming to me who can't even speak properly at age 5/6 or can't even recognize alphabets.... I think being a parent you have to take an active role in teaching your child. Don't wait till the last minute before they enter formal schooling! Alot of parents will just dump their kids at tuition centres, enrichment centres, private tutoring classes hoping the child will catch up. Now that's not right really, there is no such thing as crash course for kids. They need time to digest what they learn and that's why when kids enter formal schooling they have a hard time catching up and thus parents are force to send them for even more extra classes and that really created the situation now where it's a norm to see kids going for 2 to 3 different tuition classes every week. Eventually, they get bored, tired and hate learning!

Children these days excel for the sake of exams and not the pure joy of discovery and learning something for life... where are the life skills? Schools and teachers are pressured to focus on academic results, sports not so important... where is the balance? Alot of parents will enroll they children for piano, ballet, martial art, art workshops...etc.. have they fully understood how each of these activities can really benefit their children?

I think parents these days are just too busy with their work and personal life and alot of times neglect their children's learning/bonding time. If you can afford the best milk, best clothes, best school....why can't you spend 10 minutes a day to teach your child?

I always tell parents...teaching doesn't mean sitting with the child at the desk and doing work! It's all about having fun. Children learn best when they enjoy it and they remember best when it's alot of fun!

Every day I will spend about 2 to 5 minutes max with Reese flashing cards. When I am not flashing cards, I will just read with him for 5 to 10 minutes. Now reading doesn't mean holding the book and forcing the child to sit with you. What I do is... I point at pictures sitting on the floor or bed or wherever my boy wants to be. At times... I will carry on reading even if he is not interested or when he walks away... I will try to make funny sounds to get his attention or I will stop reading and play with him for a while and then resume! :)

Whenever I get to be with him, I make it a point to teach him something...it only takes a minute for him to learn something new.

Repetition is important.

Be creative. Be rough!. Be loud and silly. Be a kid! :)

Next time will talk about flash card learning. It really works!